Witchcraft is not religion, but a practice. A practice in which as been done for thousands of years. Another name for Witchcraft is "The Craft of the Wise", back in medievel times many wemon were in practise of this craft, sense some wemon were close to nature, they were able to figure out the magickal healing properties of some herbs.
But what they didn't know, was in the future their kindness to people would turn against them, they started the witch burnings. Now Witchcraft is not a religion but a practice then you are guessing what religion is Witchcraft in? Well in most things I read, I see that Witchcraft is more associated with Wicca.
Most Witches believe in "karma" believing in when you do good deeds you will get good karma. If you do darker deeds, then you will get darker karma.
Witches either work alone or in a group of people which in general we call it a coven. Now Witches usually preform ritual, looking for guidance with spirits, and many other things...they not not different from other religions.
It is not just women who were witches, there were many male witches. Saying most witches believe in karma is an erroneous statement. Karma is a Hindu concept, it is dogma, witchcraft has no dogma.
The witch burnings are often overstated, and many of the people burned in those times were not witches...they just failed the stupid tasks set forth to see if someone was a witch.
There are many witches who do not believe in spiritual beings at all and recognise the importance of rewriting belief systems to correspond to new findings from biology, physics and psychology.
I wish I knew more about the practice of witchcraft, but I don't. What I do know is it is not Wicca and those who follow witchcraft who I know try to keep as distant as possible to Wicca. The people I know who follow it don't believe in karma, they follow their own moral compass. While not all follow a deity, some do connect with a higher being or higher self.
Regarding the burning, as mentioned, it wasn't just witches that were killed, it was mostly people who owned land or someone had a grudge against them. They were guilty until proven innocent, and the tests were doomed to prove them wrong. Like throwing someone in a lake, water is pure, if they float the water rejected the impurity, if they sank, they were innocent [and drowned but whatever]
Thousands of years ago, traditional witches did indeed "experiment", mainly trying to find the healing qualities of plants
Most modern, traditional witches, are more to do with observing the magic that is in Nature. Modern traditional witches, like me, are really seekers of knowledge,wisdom, enlightenment.The problem with witchcraft in modern times is that almost all of the practises of witchcraft have been taken over by the Medical Profession. We still know how to heal, but modern medicine does it quicker, and easier.
As has been said many times on this site, magic is very akin to science. To my old witch teacher. radio and television are magic.Eye surgery, organ transplants.
But all the magic of Nature is still there; and can still astound the young!.
So, far from being a religion, witchcraft may be practised by any religion, or none at all!
I have a doubt.
Once a chapter came in my english class regarding witches and our English teacher told us that male magic practitioners are termed as wizards and in same way female as witches,is it so?
And one more thing which deeply disturbs me a lot is that many a times the term 'WITCH' is used to abuse someone.
Male practioners may have been called anything they wanted to be called. I know male witches usually just identify themselves as witches. I use the term magician for myself, but that is because it is associated with my main type of practice.
It depends what the people wanted to call them, I have never really seen the term wizard used however.
Stage illusionists were often called wizards; and cartoon characters.
By around the 11th century most of the male witches, still experimenting with everything in the Earth,started to become known as Alchemists. The word witchcraft was an abomination to the Catholic Church. It still is!
